PlanetFargo

If You Build It, It Will Own

This week, Fargo documents his efforts to build his own monster PC rig

"It's time to upgrade my PC," I told everyone. That was like a year ago. Since then, I've watched a parade of great titles come out that my old computer -- I think it was a 486 -- couldn't run without actual human blood spurting out of the power supply. My framerate was bad enough to allow for a few bites of a sandwich between each one.

Nowadays, the price of a pre-built mid-range PC has come down significantly. But the high-end stuff can still cost a lot of ducats, and I wanted the high end. In fact, I wanted to blow past the high-end. I wanted a face-melter. I wanted the graphical equivalent of a hydrogen bomb test, with speakers that were just as loud. Turning on my PC should be like opening the Ark of the Covenant.

This was a big step for me. I had installed hard drives or 3D cards before, but beyond that, my experience at building machines was limited to motorized LEGOs. But I'm not here to brag (even though I ama LEGOGod). I'm here with words of encouragement: If, in fact, I can build my own PC, despite being confounded by strings of Christmas lights, then you can totally do it. I believe in you!

I started with Sal's Mini-PC article as a reference, and then I just picked parts from an online store with really big numbers associated with 'em. I figured I'd scale back on the power if my total was too expensive. That's when I discovered the joy of rolling your own: I picked out nearly the best of everything, and my total cost (not including software) was only slightly more than my poker winnings. And they say you shouldn't go all-in with king-queen suited!

For a chassis, I picked this Aspire compact case, since it looked easy to haul to LAN parties. More importantly, it had clear acrylic side panels. That meant that if I failed to build a computer, I could always use it as a small greenhouse or perhaps as an attractive Hermit Crab terrarium.

What they don't tell you in the manual is how easy it is to scratch up those side panels. My PC now looks like an extra in a Freddy Kruger movie.

Once you have everything, you lay out all the parts on a table. Note that the 3D card comes in a package roughly the size of a truck bed. All of this stuff will have to fit into that tiny, tiny little case. I hope you have itty-bitty hands.